Day 22: Part Two: Books, Kindles, or Zombies?

So, where was I? Oh, right -

Love books - what about ebooks and zombies?

On the ebook front - I adored my Amazon Kindle. Instead of one or two books... I could carry so many. I got a lot of the free classics right away. I finally had a way to flip between the different books I was reading.  As for actually reading on a Kindle, once you're reading, you forget you're not holding a book.

Another thing I quickly loved about the Kindle - I've had some weird issue with my hands for the last 10 years or so (not arthritis) and holding some of the bigger books became unbearable at times. Even trying to hold open paperbacks was a struggle some days. Holding the Kindle - even the larger 2nd Generation - never bothered my hands.

The readability on a Kindle is amazing. Not only does the Eink display look like a page out of a book, you can change the font size from smaller to larger - whichever way works for you. And although no one would ever/should ever purchase a Kindle for the Text To Speech, it offers hours of entertainment, in and of itself. Try it some time - the word "baby" is probably the funniest word to hear on a Kindle.

Clearly, I'm an ebook fan. I was reading ebooks before the term "ebook" was named. I am not a fan of reading off a computer screen - I'm guessing it's the lighting (but I can spend hours on Pintrest.com and DYAC on my computer...).

So - it's clear - I'm a book fan. I'm an ebook fan.
Did buying a Kindle curb my "real" book purchasing? Sure. Of course it did. Now instead of $80 book purchases every few months, I spent that much about every six months. 2 things changed - 1. I now take my Kindle with me (or Kindle app on phone) and double check prices. 2. When I do go into a real bookstore - I spend money in the store and on my Kindle at the same time - which often is double the amount I used to spend on books.

Today - I still own my original Kindle, but I also have a Kindle Fire. The Fire is compact, touch screen, sleek, and downright beautiful. But, I can't put it into a baggie and sit in the hot tub with it and I can't see it well in direct sunlight. That's where my older Kindle comes into play - along with real books.

I also cannot believe airlines make you turn off your eReader in take off and landing - but because they do, I still carry a book or two when traveling (looks like that might be changing!).

So there it is - Real books vs. Kindles - Questions?


Why did you not discuss Nook or Sony's eReaders?
Right - I'm not going to discuss Nook at this point because my choice remains Kindle. As for Sony's eReaders - I played with them a lot through the years and, although they have great features missing in Kindles (one great feature - Removable Memory Cards - SD or otherwise), I felt they were bulkier, heavier, and slower to "turn" the pages. (FINE: Nook - touch is not as responsive, the Nooks in the store crashed every time I tried to do anything - overall performance was lacking in comparison - there.)

What on earth do Zombies have to do with this conversation?
I thought you'd never ask -
When the Zombie Apocalypse occurs - electricity will vanish - trumping all eReaders.
Books need no batteries.

I win either way.

Day Eight: Sleepy Zombies

Okay, maybe zombies don't actually sleep. I also doubt they use Post-It notes, which is just sad. No wonder they all eat brains.

Returning a moment to The Walking Dead and, well, zombies in general - a question: If zombies are dead and decomposing then, in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse, wouldn't we all just have to hide out for a few weeks while they turn to mush and bones?

If an animal can be picked clean to bones and fur in roughly a week (see CSI and YouTube), then it's fair to say it would take a month or more to get a person to bone. So, does turning zombie slow the decomposition rate? According to one site, the human brain liquifies within such a short period. I really think we could just hunker down and wait it out. That is, of course, if the brains of a zombie hold such power.

I would love to continue this conversation, but I'm typing in my sleep, now..
No announcement tonight - must sleep. See ya tomorrow.

Day Six: Zombie Wars

I grew up watching scary movies with my dad. I remember being as young as four watching every big bug movie. I don't know if it was the movies I loved more or the time with my dad. Although I also watched football with him and Saturday Night Live (admittedly, I was way too young for it all) with him, it is the horror flicks I embraced. 

When I was about five, maybe six, my dad took me and my brother (Chuck was 8 or so) to the drive-in. When my dad pulled up to pay, the guy asked my dad if he was sure he wanted to bring us in. Daddy said, "It's fine. They'll fall asleep in no time." He later said it was the first movie he took us to that we both watched every minute. I devoured the movie and carry images of it even now. I looked for the movie for years and finally found it a year or so ago on Netflix - I Drink Your Blood and I Eat Your Skin. Great title, huh? 

The best image from the movie was this woman using a carving knife to cut off her own hand and stumbling out the back door. I've thought of the movie so often through the years - and always with such fondness... as odd as that sounds. 

After going back and watching the movie as an adult - I can't believe my dad took us to see that movie! It's really a commentary on hippies and how they are destroying society - through the guise of nudity, satan, and rabies, no less. That's the other image that stays with me - someone using a huge syringe to inject rabies-infected blood into a pie. (Can you hear my smile?)

Oh, and then there was the day Daddy took me to the movies to see Jaws. I was way too young to see that, too, but I'd read the book and couldn't wait to see the movie. I begged Daddy to take me. Afterwards, I didn't want to take a bath for days because I knew a shark would get me (yeah, laugh it up, but I lived in Arkansas - the bath was the closest thing to ocean I'd ever seen).

I remember when The Exorcist came out. My brother and cousins went to see it, but, again, I was too young. Only this time, no one would take me. I remember some controversy around it back then, but even when I saw it the first six or more times, I didn't see why (I mean, other than the religion thing).

Turns out I was watching the edited version on channels like TBS, or whatever. The first time I saw the fully un-censored version - oh my. I'm really glad I didn't see it back then. 

One night, when I was about 13, my dad had been out and came home around ten. Initially, he was furious because I had every single light on in the house - even the bathroom lights. He walked in yelling about the electric bill and asked what I was doing. I confessed I'd just watched The Omen and The Omen 2. 

I don't remember seeing him laugh as hard as he did that night. And he stopped yelling about the cost of electricity for the rest of the evening and watched the next scary movie with me.

So, is it really any surprise that I love Zombies?

While everyone has the ribbons to "Support Troops" and every other cause out there - My ribbon is "Support Zombies." I still believe one of the best scary movies ever made is Night of the Living Dead.

Luckily, my husband is as big a fan as I am with horror flicks and zombies in general. 

My love of horror extends beyond movies to books and, of course, video games. Left 4 Dead, in my opinion, is one of the best ones out there. And for a little Android fun - Stupid Zombies is quite fun (like Angry Birds, but you shoot zombies! Totally addicting!).

Okay, so what does any of this have to do with the post that never was from last night, you might have thought about 3 paragraphs ago?

The Walking Dead is definitely the best zombie television series out there (okay, fine, I guess it's the only one - so they've cornered the market). Last night was the season finale and I couldn't wait to talk about it! Rick - total bad A - (I don't know if I'm allowed to curse on here, so I'll read the fine print some day - ha) - I'm just shocked so many people are shocked by this. I mean, clearly the dude got shot and survived and fought his way to find his cheating bimbo... I mean wife... and best friend - who only ever wanted to have what Rick had from the start (see the beginning where Shane saved Rick's family over his own...).

Okay, well I want to talk more Dead stuff, but will hold off for another day.

Needless to say, I've been into the whole zombie-monster-apocolyptic movie-book-game thing for as long as I can remember - even now - the images, books, movies racing through my mind makes me pause to enjoy the memories - but I feel you've probably heard enough for now.

It was sorta nice to have a night not writing about not writing.

   Don't get too used to it.

Zombie Swine Flu Poetry*

Demi Moore had a good point this week - a few hundred cases of swine flu and everyone's wearing masks - how many more cases of HIV/AIDs do we need if over 1 million isn't enough to get people wearing condoms?

Enough about that - on to poetry*:

Zombies sneeze and Zombies cough
But it's no lie
That Zombies never die

You might wander and you might roam
But never hide
Because Zombies smell brains under the dome...


*Tess never claims to be a real poet, she only avoids writing. Any resemblance to an actual poetry is probably a figment of Tess's imagination and propagated by widespread hallucinogenic use by said unpoet and readers alike.